Chippenham Town 1 Redditch United 1

KEEPER Brad Catlow kept Redditch United in contention before a Reece Hales penalty rescued a share of the spoils at Chippenham.

Reds soaked up plenty of first-half pressure but looked dangerous on the break and then kicked on in the second half to warrant their hard-earned point at Hardenhuish Park.

It was a sloppy cross-field pass from Hales that handed the hosts the initiative after eight minutes with Duane Courtney guilty of a foul while trying to recover.

And although Catlow did well to push away Matt Jones’s free-kick, Alex Ferguson was on hand to slot home.

Chippenham went in pursuit of a second with Chris Allen’s free-kick tipped over at full stretch by Catlow midway through the first half.

Hales found Michael Taylor to fluff his lines at the other end but the hosts might have doubled their lead through former-Red Will Richards’s header.

It should have been two on the stroke of half-time when Jordan Brown’s short backpass was pounced upon by Ferguson but Catlow intercepted and then saved at point-blank range from David Pratt.

Ferguson and Sandell were thwarted by Catlow after the restart but Redditch settled down once they had snatched an equaliser.

Hales took advantage of a mix-up at the back to feed Taylor who was fouled in the box and the ex-Kidderminster midfielder rifled home from the spot on 61 minutes.

George Washbourne should have put the Reds in front four minutes later but his header lacked power from a promising position.

New signing Ahamd Ali, who looked bright having stepped off the bench, fired just wide from the edge of the box with 20 minutes to go and the rest of the match passed without incident.

Reds: CATLOW 8*, Jones 7, Kelly 7, Brown 7, Courtney 7, Cullinane-Liburd 7, Bako 6 (Ali, 68, 6), Hales 8, Taylor 6 (Thompson, 73), Apostocopoulos 6, Washbourne 6. Unused subs: Johnson, Young.